June 27, 2004

The other day I texted the word Poker to Newstalk 106 (my favourite radio station) and I won two tickets to the Merrion Casino Club for one of the heats of the World Poker Championship. As a result i spent a very pleasant afternoon in the Merrion Casino watching Ram Vaswani beat out a reigning world champion and an ex-world champion to win a place at the semi-final table tomorrow morning. Commentary was by Liam Flood, who apparently was knocked out of an earlier heat. Part of the pleasantness of the afternoon was down to Flood's banter with the audience.

Mind you, the afternoon didn't start off too pleasantly. I had been told to be in my seat by 2.30 because the game was being recorded for TV (Sky Sports 1 apparently). I turned up on time and filled out a membership form for the Casino club (required) and was told the people 'upstairs' had the list of people who had won tickets. However, before I got upstairs, I was told the game was running late and I should come back around 3pm. I came back around 2.45, went upstairs only to find no-one was checking names - anyone with a membership card could have walked in – and that the heat had started already. I stood at the back for a while until there was a break and a group of guys in the front row left.

Watching from the back wasn't fun. You couldn't see any of the action so I once I sat down I said to myself I'd leave after a few minutes. The next thing I knew Ram Vaswani was the only one of the original nine players left and it was almost 8pm. No, I didn't fall asleep. The whole thing just became engrossing.

June 26, 2004

Spirit and Opportunity have been exploring the surface of Mars for over five months. That's amazing when you consider they were only supposed to last for three months. Spirit has found a rock dubbed 'Pot of Gold' which appears to contain hematite, a mineral associated with the presence of water while Opportunity has discovered sedimentary rocks which, on Earth, require water to form. [spacetoday.net]

June 21, 2004

The papers were full of the news yesterday that Martin Christie, a newly elected Councillor for Dublin City Council, had been suspended 'without prejudice.' Gerry Adams et al were saying nothing as to the reasons behind the suspension. However, Newstalk 106 quoted Gerry Adams as saying that Martin had allegedly stolen from a previous employer. It was also further reported that Martin had settled the matter with his employer. Apparently, Adams was concerned less with the allegations themselves rather than with the fact that he didn't know about them beforehand. I suppose it's safe to assume that if Martin had robbed a bank and shot a Garda in cold blood - which of course he didn't - there would have been no problem.

All of a sudden the X-Prize is news. This afternoon, Burt Rutan's spacecraft piloted by Mike Melvill climbed to a height of over 100km becoming the first privately owned and funded craft to reach space.

The flight began at 14:45 IST when White Knight took off from the Mojave Desert carrying SpaceShipOne. About an hour later and at an altitude of about 14km, the two craft separated. White Knight returned to base while SpaceShipOne continued its flight reaching the 100km mark 80s later.

Despite minor damage caused by a collapsing faring, SpaceShipOne returned safely to Earth at 16:15 IST.

While a world's first, this flight does not qualify SpaceShipOne for the X-Prize. To win, must make two further flights, both within two weeks of each other, carrying a total crew complement of three.

June 16, 2004

Amid much fanfare, Apple yesterday launched the first Europe iTunes stores. The good news is that users in France and Germany will only pay €0.99 per track while UK users will pay £0.79p, an extra €0.20. The bad news is that we here in Ireland will have to wait until October when Apple launches a pan-European store.

In the aftermath of our own e-voting debacle, it's nice to see that California is leery of electronic voting machines as well. As Wired reports, the state has published a set of standards for a paper-based audit trail. One of the reasons used by advocates of e-voting without a paper trail here, was that as a nation with such a well developed hi-tech sector we should embrace e-voting. Well if California, home of silicon valley, feels the need for a paper trail, doesn't that tell you something.

It's 100 years since a fictional character walked the streets of Dublin in James Joyce's Ulysses. In actuality, it is the 100th anniversary of James Joyce and Nora Barnacle first stepping out together.

June 12, 2004

I'm just back from shopping in Tesco. They had some nice salmon fillets and I was tempted. However, I was put off by the label on the underside It was very clearly laid out, showing cooking instructions and nutritional information. However what put me off was: